Identification of Urinary Wine Intake Biomarkers Using a Combination of Targeted and Untargeted Metabolomic Approaches

Moderate wine consumption may exert protective effects against several diseases, related with its phenol compounds. Traditionally, the epidemiological assessment of wine consumption has been obtained using self-reporting questionnaires containing less than reliable information for assessing the accurate intake of wine than nutritional biomarkers. In this study, a combination of targeted and untargeted metabolomics was applied to study the metabolite profile of 24-h human urine samples, comparing those from regular wine consumers and from non-consumers. Untargeted metabolomic analyses were performed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS) combining reversed-phase (RP) and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) to detection of both hydrophobic and hydrophilic metabolites. The targeted metabolomics approach was performed (LC-triple-quadrupole) for supervised analysis and quantification of the wine phenolic metabolites excreted in the 24-h urine samples. Results of the study demonstrated that the combination of targeted and untargeted metabolomics approaches was useful for defining an accurate profile of wine-consumption biomarkers in 24-h urine samples from the free-living volunteers without nutritional intervention and so be able to extrapolate the conclusions to the general population.